Molten Center Chocolate Cakes

One way to make a molten center chocolate cake is to undercook your batter, preferably at a high temperature that will cause the outside of you cake to appear to be cooked. I don’t honestly think that this is the best way to make a dessert because while cake batter is tasty, I don’t want it for my dessert. I mentioned once before that I was taught to make molten center chocolate cakes by putting a ball of ganache into the center of the cake (or of a souffle) before baking. Once the individual cake is done, the ganache is melted and makes a lovely, warm center when the cake is served.

The trick of using a ball of ganache can really be done with most cupcakes or souffles, and is not specific to this recipe, so don’t be afraid to try it out with your favorite chocolate cupcakes sometime. This recipe has a fairly light cake that is somewhere between a sponge cake and a souffle, though it is much more chocolaty than those two types of cake usually are. The base is formed and a ganache ball is inserted. It’s very simple.

Once of the best things about this technique is that it is easy to add different flavorings. You can use mint truffles, for example, or even store-bought truffles, provided that they do not have a hard chocolate coating. A chocolate coating should not affect the outcome, but it’s rather like adding ganache and chocolate chips, instead of just ganache.

Whipped cream is the best serving option because the light cream contrasts with the richness of the cake beautifully, though you can’t go wrong with vanilla ice cream, either.

Preheat oven to 400F. Butter a 6-cup muffin tin and dust each well with cocoa powder.
In a small bowl, melt together 2-oz. chocolate and 1 tbsp cream, either in the microwave in very small intervals or over a small double boiler. Chill for about 20 minutes once it is smooth. (This step can be done in advance and the ganache softened before using.)
In another small bowl, melt together the remaining 4-oz chocolate and the butter. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes at room temperature.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Beat with an electric mixer until the mixture triples in volume and is very thick (about 5-7 minutes). Sift flour over egg mixture and fold in. Add cooled chocolate/butter mixture and fold in until batter is uniform. Pour into prepared muffin tins.

Form ganache into 6 teaspoon-sized balls and place one in each cake, pressing gently to cover with batter. (If there is a little left over, that’s ok.)
Bake at 400F for 9-11 minutes, until the tops are set. Let cakes cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and serving on individual plates. Cakes can be served right side up or still inverted (personal preference for the look).
Serve immediately, with lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Serves 6.

Putting a ganache truffle in the center sounds quite obvious now that I’ve read it, but I would never have thought of that before. Thanks for the tip, the warm, gooey center is always my favorite part.

You have now just officially put me off my diet! I think my perfect day now includes starting with your waffle french toast, moving on to a perfect burger, and have a molten centre chocolate cake to top it all off!

Hi, I made your recipe for my daughter’s birthday yest. Though it didnt turn out as I expected, it did definitely taste very yum

Is the batter supposed to be very runny, since mine did turn out to be quite so ( not at all thick ! ) and I wasnt confident of baking it that way, so I increased the amount of flour in it ( is that the reason that it turned out to be less molten chocolaty ) …also, putting it in for 11 mins didnt give me any crust ( I baked it for another 20 mins to get a light brown crust !)

Hi, I made your recipe for my daughter’s birthday yest. Though it didnt turn out as I expected, it did definitely taste very yum

Is the batter supposed to be very runny, since mine did turn out to be quite so ( not at all thick ! ) and I wasnt confident of baking it that way, so I increased the amount of flour in it ( is that the reason that it turned out to be less molten chocolaty ) …also, putting it in for 11 mins didnt give me any crust ( I baked it for another 20 mins to get a light brown crust !)

This recipe was very, VERY easy to make. The only thing I would change is using semi-sweet chocolate next time. The bittersweet chocolate was a little too bitter and it turned some people away from my Valentine’s Day dessert!

Also, I found it easier to fill the muffin tins halfway with the batter, drop in a teaspoonful of ganache, and then cover the ganache with the rest of the batter. I did one batch by buttering the muffin tins without dusting with cocoa powder and one with. My cakes stuck when I dusted the tins so I would skip the dusting for next time. If you choose not to dust, use a lot of butter to prevent sticking.

Overall, I would definitely be making this again in the near future. I just really love the simplicity of the recipe. It makes it easy and less stressful to bake.